News 08:00

BULLETIN 3 May 8 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Ramaphosa says the ANC’s disciplinary committee must be allowed to do its work
# The Road Accident Fund currently has a backlog of over 320-thousand claims
# And Turkey halts all trade with Israel over the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza

# ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa says the party’s disciplinary committee works independently of all the other structures of the ruling party. This comes as former president Jacob Zuma has been summoned to appear before the committee next week on Tuesday, for contravening ANC’s Constitution. He was suspended in January after announcing he would campaign and vote for the MK Party. Speaking on the sidelines of the party’s election campaign trail in the Western Cape yesterday, Ramaphosa said the findings of the committee must be respected:

# The Road Accident Fund says it currently has a backlog of 321-thousand claims. More than 200-thousand of the outstanding claims are older than three years. The fund has launched the, Drive Your Claim Forward, campaign aimed at encouraging claimants to submit outstanding documents required to investigate as well as pay claims. CEO Collins Letsoalo says the fund is committed to efficiently settling claims in 120 days, but supporting documents play a crucial role in finalising a claim efficiently and speedily.

# RISE Mzansi Youth and Student Chapters are demanding immediate action to resolve the scholar transport strike in the Eastern Cape. Several scholar transport operators went on strike yesterday after the provincial Transport Department failed to pay their fees on time. Treasury in the province allocated 725-million-rand to the scholar transport programme for this financial year. RISE Mzansi’s, Lawrence Manaka, says the pupils are the most affected by this strike:

# Turkey has suspended all trade with Israel over its offensive in Gaza, citing the worsening humanitarian tragedy in the Palestinian territories. Trade between the two countries was worth almost 129-billion-rand last year. The Turkish Trade ministry says the suspension would be in place until Israel allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of aid into Gaza. Israel’s Foreign minister, Israel Katz, criticised the decision and accused Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan of acting like a dictator.

# Tennis: World number one Iga Swiatek will face defending champion Aryna Sabalenka in the Madrid Open final, a repeat of last year’s final. Swiatek of Poland defeated American Madison Keys, 6-1, 6-3, to reach her third final of the year. Belarusian second seed Sabalenka fought back from a set down to beat Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, 1-6, 7-5, 7-6. Sabalenka says she expects a tough match against Swiatek:

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-54-cents and the euro at 19-rand-91-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-28-cents and Bitcoin trades at 59-thousand-873-dollars-91-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-300-dollars-98-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 83-dollars-85-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….